In the Place of Last Things

"We better get back maybe.
All right. I'll see you when I get home.
What are you talking about?
We'll set everything right and be happy. We'll all be converted. The skies will all be promising.
What the hell? You're worse now than when you left.
I've come all the way back and then some, Skidder. I feel fine."

This excerpt reveals something of Russ' character. In the beginning of Micheal Helm's novel, In the Place of Last Things, Russ is angry and frustrated at the death of his father. This frustration makes him lash out at many of his only friends, changing their attitude towards him. Russ is especially hostile towards Skidder, whom he treats with indifference and distain. After Russ' journey, however, his attitude towards other people changes. He begins to understand that his friends want to support him, but he is pushing them away by isolating himself. He also begins to help others that attempted to support him. He does this by redistributing the $50 000 American dollars that he takes in Jack Marks' place under the guise that it was in Mike's will. In this way he is reddeeming himself in his own eyes for his failure to carry out his father's final wishes.

"The Virgin that Marks had stolen from the bus driver had been tacked to the wall above the bed. The story had not been told in the spirit of relinquishment or redress. Marks didn't even seem to care if Russ believed him. Of course he didn't care. He placed no value on anyone else's faith, not of any kind."

This excerpt reveals something about Jack Marks' character. Jack is a deceitful and manipulative person who doesn't care about anyone except himself. He is not ashamed of creating an image to draw young women towards him. This can be seen in the attraction that Lea feels for him. Jack met Lea by pretending to be cured because of his Christian faith. It is revealed later in the novel that Jack habitually seduces unsuspecting Christian girls. This behaviour shows his uncaring attitude towards others. He uses other people only to his own advantage and then discards them when they are no longer useful. Lea is a perfect example of this. Once Jack had gotten all he needed from Lea, he left suddenly and without explanation, with no intention of returning.

"I got to start over here. You're right. I got lucky. It's hard to get over being so lucky."

This excerpt reveals something about Tara Harding's character. Tara is Russ' former lover and colleague during his brief teaching career in Toronto. Tara is a caring individual who is more interested in helping others than her own advancement. After she attempts unsuccessfully to help John Overstreet's estranged wife Beth, Tara severs her ties with Russ and begins a new life in Vancouver. Here she meets Beth's father, William, and endeavors to create a family history that she can mail to Beth after William's death. Tara feels guilty in her success at establishing a new life for herself, even after she convinced Russ to pass John Overstreet, who was failing Russ' course. She feels that other people deserve a chance to start their lives over and that she does not deserve this chance. This guilt leads her to help others less fortunate than her.

"She smiled in her unshakeable faith. It was the first moment in which Russ realized she was, in truth, a little dangerous."

This excerpt reveals something about Lea Bollins' character. Lea is the teenage daughter of Grant Bollins, one of the late Mike Littlebury's friends. Lea is a devoted Christian and strongly believes in her faith. She falls in love with Jack Marks and believes that she is pregnant with his baby. She asks Russ to travel to El Paso, Texas to find Jack and deliver the news of her pregnancy to him. When Russ tries to explain to her the reality that Jack has skipped town and is not coming back, she merely laughs and says that she "knows" Jack will return. She believes that it is God's will that Jack and She be together, and that Russ is the messenger of God's will. This unshakeable faith is the basis for Russ' entire journey, as she and Skidder steal Russ' truck and leave to find Jack. Russ spends a sizeable part of the novel chasing them. After he has caught up with Lea, Russ agrees to speak to Jack. Lea's single-minded religious drive has a large influence on Russ and leads him to question his own faith.

"I'm seeing the tumour. I close my eyes and I see it. It's the size of a grapefruit but I imagine it shrinking. Grapefruit, orange, golf ball, a little pebble, then a speck of dust washed away in the blood. I see it shrinking every day and every night."

This excerpt reveals something about Mike Littlebury's character. Mike dies from a terminal illness in the beginning of the novel. His character develops through some of the many flashbacks that Russ has throughout the novel. Mike has a strong faith in God that he wishes Russ shared. He does not have the education that Russ does, and his faith often brings him into conflict with Russ' logical and scientific outlook on the world. Mike believes that he can heal himself through his faith, while Russ' refuses to believe this is possible. Before his conversion, Mike was a violent individual, but his faith changed him into a totally different person.

Islandbridge

Islandbridge is one of seven Matt Minogue crime fiction books written by John Brady. The book begins with an Irish Guard officer named Declan Kelly witnessing a double murder outside a Dublin nightclub in the 1980's. He is then abducted by crime kingpin Jimmy Rynn and his hotheaded son. Rynn offers Declan his life, but is very cryptic about what he wants in return. Several months later, Declan receives a large sum of money from Rynn, who asks for nothing in return. Another month or two after that, Rynn's son is shot and killed. Declan goes to the funeral, and later receives a call from Rynn, who's angry that he showed up at the funeral. Rynn then asks Declan to find the phone number and address of a woman named Lorraine Smith. Declan then meets Rynn and refuses to do his dirty work for him. Rynn then threatens Declan's new wife and unborn child, and storms out of the bar. Declan hurries out to warn his wife, but he is killed by a car driven by one of Rynn's hired guns. The story then fast-forwards to 2005, where we find Garda detective Matt Minogue and his partner Tommy Malone investigating the suspicious death of a guard officer named Emmett Codon from a suspected drug overdose. Malone manages to revive the cold case when he finds an former drug addict nicknamed Frank Lawless who has new information on the case. Lawless tells Minogue and Malone that Codon was in fact giving inside information about the Irish Guards to criminals in exchange for money. Several days later, Lawless is found murdered in his apartment. Malone becomes determined to find Codon's killer, and begins to seek out a girl that he believes was affiliated with Codon. This leads them to a foreign man known only as George. George escapes from Minogue and Malone and later attempts to gun down Malone on a busy Dublin street. During these events the story is switching between Minogue and Declan Kelly's widow, Eimear, who has now changed her name to Maura and has married Minogue's boss, James Kilmartin. She is also working as an informant to Rynn, who still dominates the criminal underworld in Ireland. Near the end of the novel, Minogue is called over to Kilmartin's house, where Kilmartin reveals that his wife told him that she had been working for Rynn for several years. Kilmartin also shows Minogue photos of George, who was killed by Rynn. The novel ends with Rynn and Maura's arrest, and Minogue taking a well-deserved vacation.


John Brady does a good job of capturing the emotions of the several main characters in Islandbridge. The first part of the book, which covers the story from Declan Kelly's perspective, is especially well written. John Brady really succeeds in creating a sense of fear and suspence when Declan is abducted by Rynn. However, after Declan's death, the writing begins to go downhill. The plot is not exactly linear, with time periods switching from the 1990s to the present day, often suddenly and without warning. Character motives are also difficult to follow. For example, it is clear that Maura is working for Rynn, but her motives for working for him are never revealed. In reality, it would seem more plausible that she should hate him for the death of her first husband. There are also large gaps in time between the chapters.This also contributes to the confusion of the reader regarding the storyline. Finally, the rapid conclusion makes the ending quite weak. All of the novel's events can be summed up in the final thirty pages.

One quotation that appealed to me in this novel was when Minogue and Malone were questioning a waitress at a bar about a man they were looking for. The waitress was not of much help and sent them away, even though she had hinted that she knew more than she was letting on. Minogue reflected on this afterwards. "I meant how a citizen can say that to a Guard, she might help. If it suits her." This quotation piqued my interest and got me thinking about how the respect for police has decreased greatly over the years. Another was a line that Rynn told Maura after he had dropped off one of her payments for information. "Whatever else you can say about me, I keep my word, don't I." This quotation also got me thinking about the twisted sense of honour that Rynn has. He fancies himself a businessman, but in reality he's only a common criminal.

Miles: The Autobiography

The book that I’ve read for my second blog report was called Miles: The Autobiography. The book is an autobiography written by the famous trumpet player Miles Davis. In this book, Miles talks about his life, his music, and all of the famous jazz musicians that he has played with over the years. In this book, Miles talks about his heroin addiction, and the many other problems that he has confronted during his musical career. This autobiography begins with Miles earliest memory, which is a small blue flame jumping off a gas stove. Miles then begins to describe his relationship with his parents and how he first became interested in playing the trumpet. Miles then talks about his first professional gig, and how he met Charlie “Bird” Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Miles’ relationship with Charlie Parker is especially complex. Miles respects his playing, but as Bird’s heroin addiction worsens, he begins to move away from Bird’s band, and begins to start his own solo career. Miles then starts up his own working band, which many famous jazz players have passed through over the years. Miles also describes many of the famous jazz clubs in the world, such as Milton’s Playhouse, the Blackhawk, and Birdland. Miles then begins to describe his heroin addiction in earnest, from when he first became addicted while in Billy Eckstine’s band, up to when he finally kicked his habit “cold turkey” more than four years later. After he kicked his habit, Miles returned to New York and experienced one of the greatest periods of musical creativity in his life. Eventually, Miles becomes sick of the racism shown to him by white critics, and he decides to stop playing trumpet altogether. During this five year silence, Miles becomes extremely depressed. He also experiences problems with his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. Eventually he breaks out of his depression, and begins to play his trumpet again. By this time, jazz is a dying style of music, so Miles re-invents his image and begins to play a more modern style of jazz/funk. The book ends with Miles career still rolling along, although he is over sixty by the time the book ends.

One of the most interesting facets of this book is that since it is an autobiography, it is written in Miles’ own hand. If you read the afterword of the book, you will find that initially many critics canned the book because of Miles’ use of language. However, this style of writing is what gives the book its character. The language adds a sense of intimacy to the book. While you are reading it really seems that Miles is speaking to you personally about his life, and not just to a general audience. His honesty regarding his addiction to heroin is also refreshing. Many men would not speak as honestly about their addiction as Miles does. He recounts many of the disgraceful things that he had to do to support his habit and his many attempt to rid himself of his addiction. He eventually managed to defeat his addiction by locking himself in the two-storey guest house of his father’s farm and staying there for eight days straight while he was suffering withdrawal symptoms.

The way that Miles describes his withdrawal symptoms are very lifelike. He compares his withdrawal symptoms to many things in this particular quote, “It was a feeling like arthritis, or a real bad case of the flu, only worse. The feeling is indescribable. All of your joints get sore and stiff, but you can’t touch them because if you do you’ll scream. So nobody can give you a massage. It’s the kind of hurt that I later experienced after an operation, when I had a hip replacement. It’s a raw kind of feeling that you can’t stop. You feel like you could die and if somebody could guarantee that you would die in two seconds, then you would take it.” This quote appealed to me because I admire Miles’ determination to rid himself of his heroin addiction. I think that it takes an amazingly strong person to simply stop using such an addictive drug altogether. Because of this quote, you can also imagine how difficult it must have been for him to stop. Another quote that appealed to me was when Miles described how he once knocked out his best friend Max Roach because Max tried to attack him while he was addicted to heroin. Miles said that, “That wasn’t the real Max Roach screaming in that club at me, just like it wasn’t the real Miles Davis who had been a junkie all them years. Drugs was talking for Max and so when I hit him like I did, I didn’t feel like I was hitting the real Max that I knew. But that shit hurt me real bad, real bad, and I went home and cried like a baby in Frances’s arms that night, all night.” This experience is an excellent example of how people act differently when under the influence of drugs. I think that it’s important that people realize how easily drugs can ruin the relationship between the user and his or her friends and family. Max never held it against Miles, and he later managed to beat his addiction by following Miles’ example.

A Star Called Henry

One of the books I read over the summer was A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle. The book follows the fictional life of Henry Smart. Henry in born in Dublin, Ireland, into a poor family. His father, Henry Smart Senior, is a one-legged whorehouse bouncer who also works as a contracted hitman. Henry abandons his family along with his younger brother Victor when he's only five years old. They quickly learn to survive in the slums of Ireland, that is until Victor dies of consumption and leaves Henry alone. The book then jumps forward several years to the Easter Monday Revolution in Dublin in 1916. Henry is now a soldier of the Irish Republic and barely manages to survive the British attacks, but not before falling in love with his former schoolteacher, Miss O'Shea. Henry then goes into hiding as a dockworker in Dublin until Michael Collins revives the Irish Independence movement when he returns from jail. Henry officially becomes a member of Sinn Fein, and begins recruiting men to drive the British out. He is eventually wounded in a firefight, and wakes up to find himself being tended by Miss O'Shea's mother. He later marries Miss O'Shea, and they carry out a series of daring raids against the British forces stationed in Ireland. Henry is eventually captured and imprisoned in Killmaimham Jail in Dublin. He eventually escapes, only to find out that Miss O'Shea has been captured also, but not before she has given birth to Henry's daughter. Henry is deeply changed by these events and decides to start a new life for his family in Liverpool. This is where the story ends, although Henry is still only twenty at the time.

Since A Star Called Henry follows Henry's life, there is a significant amount of character development. Henry begins his life caring about no one but himself. This is evident even at an early age by his unwillingness to share his mother with any of his younger siblings. Even as Henry matures, he cares about few people other than himself. These exceptions include his younger brother Victor and Miss O'Shea. Henry's main focus in the novel is to drive the British out of Ireland. His focus shifts drastically in the final part of the book however, when he realizes that he has been used by the leaders of the revolution. Henry then shifts his focus to trying to build a new life for his family in Liverpool. Through this change of thought, Roddy Doyle does a masterful job of conveying Henry's emotions. Anger and frustration motivate many of Henry's actions, and because of Roddy Doyle's fantastic imaging the reader really feels these emotions while reading the book.

There were several quotations in A Star Called Henry that appealed to me. The first was "Before I went to my bed that night I'd been sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the secret society at the centre of the centre of all things. I was a Fenian. I was special, one of the few. And before the end of the week, by late Saturday afternoon, I'd murdered my first rozzer." This quotation appealed to me because it gave me a small taste of what was to come in the book. This quotation reveals indirectly what will occur in the second half of the book. It hints at danger and secrecy, but it never actually reveals any of the other events until they occur. Another one of my favourite quotations is, "Three years on a stolen bike. Through wind, rain, and bullets. Henry Smart struck strange, hard blows for Ireland and disappeared." This quotation appealed to me because it added a sense of mystique to Henry Smart's actions. The line about the stolen bike especially grabbed my attention when I read the book the first time. Henry affectionally calls his stolen bike "the Arseless" which added to the irregularity of the quotation. The strangeness of this quotation was what struck me the most.